Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Wild Horses' Troubled Rescue - "Flying Sheep Dogs" - video

It seemed like one of those blatant outrages, a case of good versus evil with an easy solution if the United States government would just come to the rescue. Herds of wild horses, brought to this country long ago by Spanish settlers, a symbol of a free American West, were being rounded up, slaughtered and sold to the pet food industry for cheap meat. If something wasn’t done, these beautiful untamed animals would disappear as the buffalo had a century earlier. But the public mobilized. There was a huge letter-writing campaign to Congress; an 11-year-old boy persuaded his father, a congressman from Maryland, Gilbert Gude, to file legislation; and in 1971, President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill that made killing the horses a federal crime. And then, as this week’s Retro Report video points out, the problems began...more

The NY Times prevents embedding videos, but you can view it here. From a historical standpoint it's an interesting video to watch.I especially enjoyed rancher Bob Garrett's response to the wild horse being a symbol of the west: "We're riding the horses that built the American West".